Benches Park is a Caltrans freeway parcel located at the east end of the 18th Street foorbridge over HWY 101. The park offers a meandering garden, a small plaza for neighborhood gatherings and exercise and the park’s namesake benches. It is a favorite rest stop for pedestrians walking east and west through Potrero Hill. Benches and its sister park, Fallen Bridge, at the west end of the foot bridge, help knit together the neighborhoods separated by the construction of the the 101 freeway in the 1950s.

Benches Park is one of the oldest parks in the GBD system. Neighbors worked with Babette Drefske and Ann Sustrich of Potrero Beautiful and the Youth Conservation Corps to clear and plant the site in 1970. The adjacent garden was created in 2008 by the San Bruno Neighborhood Association.

The GBD has helped to maintain the park since the organization was formed in 2015. The GBD also completed a substantial facelift at Benches, with the help of its park stewards, funding assistance from the City’s Community Challenge Grants program and a partnership with Friends of the Urban Forest. For more information about the 2017 renovation click HERE.